With the continuous improvement of the national road network, the number of constructed channels across rivers is also increasing, wherein steel box girder bridges have been widely constructed as they can span longer distances. However, because the pavement layer laid on the steel box girder deck may experience a bending strain as high as 700 microstrain (the bending strain limit of ordinary road pavement is controlled at <200 microstrain), and the enclosed space of the steel box girder works like an oven in the summer, which makes the steel bridge deck pavement temperature much higher than the temperature of ordinary road pavements, the steel bridge deck pavement layer is prone to cracking, high-temperature rutting and other forms of distress. To resolve these issues, domestic and foreign researchers continue to improve the steel box girder pavement technologies, and have gradually formed the pavement structure patterns of “double layer epoxy asphalt concrete”, “lower layer epoxy asphalt concrete+upper layer SMA”, “lower layer gussasphalt concrete+upper layer SMA “and” lower layer gussasphalt concrete+upper layer epoxy asphalt concrete”.
However, each of the above-mentioned pavement structure patterns has a certain degree of defects, and actual engineering applications also show a variety of pavement defects: (1) for the “double layer epoxy asphalt concrete”, since epoxy asphalt concrete is a rigid material that is similar to cement concrete, it is easy to crack, and because dense aggregate gradation is used, its surface texture structure cannot meet desired requirements and may cause vehicle skidding and other traffic hazards; (2) for the “lower layer epoxy asphalt concrete+upper layer SMA”, since the high temperature stability of SMA pavement material is poor, it is prone to a upper layer high temperature deformation disease; (3) for the “lower layer gussasphalt concrete+upper layer SMA”, since the high temperature performance of the gussasphalt concrete and SMA material is poor, it is prone to high temperature deformation; (4) for the “lower layer gussasphalt concrete+upper layer epoxy asphalt concrete”, since the construction processes of gussasphalt concrete and epoxy asphalt concrete are both complicated, which needs to use two different sets of special construction procedures and equipment, its construction cost is high and limits its promotion and application.
Therefore, the development of a steel box girder deck pavement technology that not only prevents the occurrence of pushing and deformation of asphalt concrete under high temperatures and heavy loads, but also ensures that the asphalt concrete can follow the high flexible deformation of steel box girders, and has good surface driving safety features, simple construction process, and cost effectiveness, will quickly promote the application and construction of steel box girder bridges.